B-25J-1

B-25J-1

B-34

B-25J-20

B-25J-1

B-34

B-25J-20

USA

II Rank

Battle rating:

AB	RB	SB
3.7	4.0	3.7

Class:

Bomber

Frontline bomber

Research:9 200

Purchase:16 000

Show in game

This page is about the American medium bomber B-25J-1. For other versions, see B-25 (Family).

Description

The B-25J-1 Mitchell is a rank II American bomber with a battle rating of 3.7 (AB/SB) and 4.0 (RB). It was introduced in Update 1.29.

Design of the B-25 was the result of years of work and failed bids to win contracts with the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC). Initially designed to meet requirements for a payload of 1,200 lb (540 kg), a range of 1,200 mi (1,900 km) and flying at speeds faster than 200 mph (320 kph), prototypes were built, tested and refined. Although the original XB-21 and NA-40 never materialized into a production aircraft, requirements from the USAAC came out in March of 1939 for a medium bomber carrying a payload of 2,400 lb (1,100 kg) over 1,200 mi (1,900 km) at speeds around 300 mph (480 kph), North American modified their design of NA-40 and developed the NA-62 which went into prototype testing as the YB-25 and then ordered into production as the B-25.

The B-25 turned out to be the archetype of the medium bomber, carrying upwards of 3,000 lb (1,361 kg) of bombs and could fly at speeds up to 340 mph (547 kph). This twin-engine bomber was fast, it could carry a large payload for its size and had several defensive turrets and gunner stations at which it could defend itself from almost any angle. To increase its versatility, several models had forward-facing fixed machine guns fitted into the nose and the cheeks of the aircraft. Later models opted to removed the glazed nose and bombardier/nose-gunner station and outfit more machine guns and even a 75 mm autocannon for strafing ground targets and especially ships. This medium bomber at times acted more like a heavy attacker opting for low-level flights which would skim treetops and the ocean to sneak up on unwary targets. It was not uncommon for B-25s to fly just above the mast/smokestack height of enemy ships when attacking.

As later models moved from the dedicated bomber position and morphed into more of an attacker role, bomb payloads were reduced to allow for more armour around the cockpit and more offensive weapons and ammunition to fill the attacker mode it took on, especially under the command of U.S. Marine Corps squadrons. With more than 10,000 B-25 aircraft variants built, they saw action in all theatres of war and were even subject to part of the lend-lease program which China and the USSR benefitted from. So versatile was this aircraft that a flight of them were specifically outfitted and their crews trained to take off from an aircraft carrier and bomb mainland Japan in a daring raid. Impressive for an aircraft not meant to take off from an aircraft carrier.

The B-25 is a fantastic bomber, attacker or both and will suit many different pilots and their different approaches to the battlefields found in War Thunder. The tail gunner has been known to set many fighters alight with their dual .50 calibre machine guns and help to prolong the life of this bomber to allow the pilot to make it to their target whether it is to bomb it or strafe it.

General info

Flight performance

Describe how the aircraft behaves in the air. Speed, manoeuvrability, acceleration and allowable loads - these are the most important characteristics of the vehicle.

Characteristics
Stock
Max Speed (km/h at 3,049 m)		Max altitude (meters)	Turn time (seconds)		Rate of climb (meters/second)		Take-off run (meters)
AB	RB		AB	RB	AB	RB
420	407	7500	32.4	33.8	5.4	5.3	750
Upgraded
Max Speed (km/h at 3,049 m)		Max altitude (meters)	Turn time (seconds)		Rate of climb (meters/second)		Take-off run (meters)
AB	RB		AB	RB	AB	RB
472	444	7500	29.7	31.0	10.6	7.7	750

B-25J-1 releasing its bombs over a target.

Details

Features
Combat flaps	Take-off flaps	Landing flaps	Air brakes	Arrestor gear
✓	✓	✓	X	X

Limits
Wing-break speed (km/h)	Gear limit (km/h)	Combat flaps (km/h)	Max Static G
			+	-
		340	~6	~2

Optimal velocities
Ailerons (km/h)	Rudder (km/h)	Elevators (km/h)	Radiator (km/h)
< 300	< 270	< 350	> 330

Compressor (RB/SB)
Setting 1
Optimal altitude	100% Engine power	WEP Engine power
524 m	1,500 hp	1,669 hp
Setting 2
Optimal altitude	100% Engine power	WEP Engine power
3,700 m	1,350 hp	1,502 hp

Survivability and armour

• 9.5 mm Steel plates throughout the cockpit
• 8 mm Steel plate behind the pilot
• 8 mm Steel plate under nose gunner
• 9.5 mm Steel plate behind the dorsal gunner
• 6.35 mm Steel plate behind beam gunners
• 38 mm Bulletproof glass in front of the tail gunner
• 9.5 mm Steel plates in front of the tail gunner

Rugged, sturdy, though, the B-25 is all of those things. Featuring crew armour protection that outclasses the B-17 Flying Fortress in a handier, smaller design, the Mitchell is a though nut to crack and even harder to devoid of crew. Calibres above 20 mm are a must for a quick kill, otherwise the B-25 will repay in kind. For going all defence is good, but all offence, too? It is called overkill, of the pursuit fighter.

The two Wright R-2600 air-cooled radial engines are themself hard to destroy and with dropped payload the Mitchell will just keep flying on a single damaged one. Denying underarmed fighters the ability to lethally cripple it. Yet this aurcraft has got one downside: Fuel tanks. While present in all planes, the armour, crew and bomb bay take up all the fuselage. Leaving only space in the wings. A common cause of crash is hence a fire and thus a structural failure of the wingspar.

Armaments

Offensive armament

B-25J-1 unloading on ground targets with its five forward-facing machine guns (not including the single machine gun controlled by the nose gunner/bombardier).

The B-25J-1 is armed with:

• 1 x 12.7 mm Browning M2 machine gun, nose-mounted (400 rpg)
• 4 x 12.7 mm Browning M2 machine guns, cheek-mounted (400 rpg = 1,600 total)

Suspended armament

The B-25J-1 can be outfitted with the following ordnance:

B-25J-1 diving on a ground target.

• 12 x 100 lb AN-M30A1 bombs (1,200 lb total)
• 4 x 250 lb AN-M57 bombs (1,000 lb total)
• 4 x 250 lb AN-M57 bombs + 8 x 100 lb AN-M30A1 bombs (1,800 lb total)
• 8 x 250 lb AN-M57 bombs (2,000 lb total)
• 2 x 500 lb AN-M64A1 bombs + 8 x 100 lb AN-M30A1 bombs (1,800 lb total)
• 4 x 500 lb AN-M64A1 bombs (2,000 lb total)
• 1 x 1,000 lb AN-M65A1 bomb + 10 x 100 lb AN-M30A1 bombs (2,000 lb total)
• 3 x 1,000 lb AN-M65A1 bombs (3,000 lb total)

Defensive armament

The B-25J-1 is defended by:

• 1 x 12.7 mm Browning M2 machine gun, nose turret (300 rpg)
• 2 x 12.7 mm Browning M2 machine guns, dorsal turret (400 rpg = 800 total)
• 1 x 12.7 mm Browning M2 machine gun, 2 x beam turrets (250 rpg)
• 2 x 12.7 mm Browning M2 machine guns, tail turret (600 rpg = 1,200 total)

Usage in battles

B-25J-1 tangling with a Japanese fighter over enemy territory.

In Realistic battles (and Arcade to an extent), it is highly recommended against exclusively bombing strategic bases and in general to not bomb from high altitudes. It was rarely used this way in combat, and it makes it very easy for enemy fighters to approach and attack you from your defenceless belly. Also, the bomber's maximum payload of 3 x 1,000 lb of bombs is not enough to destroy an enemy base in Realistic battles, which is useless in regards to decreasing ticket count and, most importantly, does not help your team. Thus, leave base bombing to the British heavy bombers you will likely also encounter on your team, whose payloads vastly outclass yours, and instead - if you wish to help your team as much as possible - use your five nose-mounted Browning machine guns on ground targets. Ground target strafing is not only infinitely more exciting than base bombing, but it can also lower the enemy's ticket count drastically, therefore helping your team win. Fly at low altitudes and attack light pillboxes and soft targets with your guns. If you fail to destroy a target, then pitch up and use your turrets to finish it off. Save your bombs for targets your guns cannot kill, such as heavy tanks and heavy pillboxes; the bombsight is very helpful in doing this (something which the dedicated strafing variants such as the PBJ-1J lack). Make sure to use a fuse timer, 3 seconds should be enough when bombing at treetop level with 1,000 lb bombs.

When strafing, be sure to watch your minimap at all times for any incoming enemies so you can adequately prepare for an attack. When being attacked, fly away from the assailant and try to get them on your tail, and manually open fire with your defensive guns, making sure to watch your tracers and adjust the direction of fire, so they hit the target. Remember that turret guns will jam if fired for a long duration, requiring them to be reloaded, which usually takes almost twenty seconds, during which an attacker will most certainly kill you. If the reticle starts blinking, the guns are very close to jamming, so immediately stop firing and wait for the weapons to cool down. Many experienced players will attempt to utilise the dead zones on your belly and the arcs beyond your twin rudders in their attack. If you find an enemy doing this to you, then switch back to flight view and manoeuvre so that they are in the firing arcs of your guns again and try as much as possible to keep them out of your dead zones and, mostly, make their attack as difficult as possible. The attacker will then either eventually lose patience and try for a head-on, or you will get a successful snipe on their aircraft. It is also very advantageous to use the keyboard controls for pitch, roll, and yaw in the gunner view as it will allow you to make small manoeuvres while still concentrating on defending yourself, letting you, for example, dodge fire or roll/pitch/yaw and shoot someone in your dead zones. Also, use Universal belts for your turrets as they will do the most damage to enemies and cause devastating fires.

B-25J-1 showing how deadly the tail gunner can be.

If you lose tail control for whatever reason, then immediately turn back to the airfield and use combat flaps to keep your nose up. Make a landing by alternating between takeoff and combat flaps and, if needed, landing flaps. Make sure that your speed does not go too low; if you start nosing down with takeoff flaps then do not use landing flaps (unless in an emergency) as you'll lose speed and potentially crash. Instead, engage WEP and wait for your nose to rise. There is no set method for doing this and it takes lots of practice, but making these daring landings is very rewarding. If you lose an engine, do not engage flaps as you will lose speed, end up in a stall and will die, fly straight and slowly make your way back to base, using WEP if needed. If using manual engine controls, close the radiator of the dead engine, feather it, and open the radiator of the working engine to allow you to use WEP all the way back to the airfield without overheating.

Carrier Landing Technique

Approach at 150 km/h (92 mph/80 kt), flaps set to landing. Keep applying about 60% thrust, or as necessary to maintain 150 km/h. Touchdown at the beginning of the carrier runway, slightly to the left to avoid the island. Apply hard braking, immediately retract flaps, and if necessary fire forward-facing guns.

Manual Engine Control

MEC elements
Mixer	Pitch	Radiator			Supercharger	Turbocharger
		Oil	Water	Type
Controllable	Controllable Not auto controlled	Not controllable Not auto controlled	Controllable Auto control available	Separate	Controllable 2 gears	Not controllable

Modules

Tier	Flight performance		Survivability	Weaponry
I	Fuselage repair	Radiator	Protective vest	Offensive 12 mm	SBC-25
II		Compressor	Airframe	New 12 mm MGs	MBC-25
III	Wings repair	Engine		Turret 12 mm
IV		Engine injection	Cover	New 12 mm MGs (turret)	LBC-25

Pros and cons

Pros:

• Can take a beating
• Strong defensive guns
• Versatile bomb load
• Decent speed for a bomber
• A multi-use aircraft
• Forward facing gunner automatically starts firing approx 1,000 m from the target, use as a range finder
• Has forward-facing 50 cal. MGs which are very useful for strafing

Cons:

• Manoeuvres stiffly
• Stiff elevators
• Difficult to pull out of a dive
• Often the B-25 will catch on fire
• No downward-facing defensive armament
• If tail control is damaged, return to base and land utilizing flaps and engine throttling
• Relatively low payload compared to a heavy bomber
• Forward facing gunner will automatically fire at approx 1,000 m, alerting your target
• Low energy retention; any attacks that require manoeuvring will cost speed and altitude

History

Describe the history of the creation and combat usage of the aircraft in more detail than in the introduction. If the historical reference turns out to be too long, take it to a separate article, taking a link to the article about the vehicle and adding a block "/History" (example: https://wiki.warthunder.com/(Vehicle-name)/History) and add a link to it here using the main template. Be sure to reference text and sources by using <ref></ref>, as well as adding them at the end of the article with <references />. This section may also include the vehicle's dev blog entry (if applicable) and the in-game encyclopedia description (under === In-game description ===, also if applicable).

In-game description

North American B-25J-1 Mitchell twin-engine medium bomber/ground-attack aircraft

The B-25J (NA-108) was the most largely produced Mitchell variant. The first aircraft of this type left the factory floor in December 1943, and the variant drove the B-25C and B-25D completely out of production by March of the next year.

B-25J bombers had two 1,700 hp Wright R-2600-29 fourteen-cylinder, double-row, radial air-cooled engines with Hamilton Standard Hydromatic 23E50 three-bladed automatic metal propellers.

One feature of this variant was that it could be used both as a bomber and as a ground-attack aircraft.

When used as a bomber, the B-25J-1's armament was: one fixed front machine gun (with 400 rounds) and one mobile machine gun (with 300 rounds) mounted on the navigator's cockpit in the forward fuselage; four front machine guns, with 400 rounds each, mounted in pairs on both sides of the lower fuselage section, near the pilot's cockpit; a Bendix A-9 upper turret housing twin machine guns, with 400 rounds each; a twin Bell M-7 rear mount, with 600 rounds each; and two machine guns, with 600 rounds each, in the fuselage blisters on the starboard and port sides. All gun emplacements had 12.7 mm Colt-Browning ANM2.5 machine guns. The total number of machine guns was 12.

Thus, the B-25J was practically as good in its armament as heavy bombers like the B-17 or the B-24, except for coverage from below.

To use the B-25J-1 as a ground-attack aircraft, the nose section with the navigator/bombardier's cockpit could be easily removed and replaced by a solid unglazed nose with a battery of eight 12.7 mm Colt-Browning ANM2.5 machine guns, with 400 rounds each. Thus the number of front machine guns was increased to 12, and the total number of guns to 18.

The B-25J-1's maximum bomb capacity was 4,000 lb (1,815 kg). Starting with the 151st machine, one bomb rack, meant to suspend a 2,000 lb (908 kg) bomb, was removed from production B-25J-1 bombers, since it was almost never used in combat units and did nothing but take up a lot of space in the bomb bay.

The aircraft usually carried three 1,000 lb (454 kg) or two 1,600 lb (726 kg) bombs. Different combinations of bombs of smaller sizes were also used. 10 kg parachute bombs were used, as well. The B-25J could carry a Mk.13 torpedo weighing 907 kg. In addition, removable bomb racks for bombs up to 250 kg could be mounted under the wing panels.

When used as a bomber, the aircraft had a crew of six people: two pilots, a navigator/bombardier/gunner, a turret gunner/engineer, a radio operator/waist gunner, and a tail gunner. When used as a ground-attack aircraft, the crew consisted of five people, excluding the navigator/bombardier.

Both pilot seats were equipped with an armoured backrest. One armour plate was located behind the instrument panel, and the second was under the cockpit windshield. Two armour sheets were fixed outside to the sides. Armour protection was provided for all gunners.

Media

Videos

B-25J-1 [Versatility Reborn!] - Jengar

B-25J-1 Mitchell - Hard Target - tx141TX

See also

Aircraft of comparable role, configuration and era

• de Haviland Mosquito
• Douglas DB-7 and its many derivatives (such as A-20G)
• Douglas A-26 Invader
• Tupolev Tu-2

Other B-25 variants in-game

• B-25J-20 - Very little difference between the J-1 and J-20, an additional nose-mounted machine gun, slight armour difference.
• B-25J-30 (Chinese lend-lease) - Virtually same as J-20 variant.
• B-25J-30 (Soviet lend-lease) - Same as Chinese lend-lease version with the exception it utilises Soviet bombs.
• PBJ-1H - U.S. Marine variant - 75 mm autocannon and eight nose-mounted machine guns, lower service ceiling, reduced bomb load compared to J-1, J-20 and J-30 variants, increased armour around the cockpit.
• PBJ-1J - U.S. Marine variant - Identical to PBJ-1H in-flight characteristics and bomb loadout, no 75 mm cannon, a total of 12 nose-mounted machine guns.

External links

• [Forums B-25J Mitchell, Official Thread]